Logan Chapter 25

-Cora-

Once I’m finally able to extricate myself from Emory’s sob fest, I realize that it’s a good thing she ruined all that perfectly good tequila with her carton of cellulite. This whole trip would be way more annoying if I had to wait for a damn cab on top of everything else. I do my best thinking while I’m in traffic, anyway.

There’s obviously something going on with Logan Úlfur. If I’m very, very lucky, it’ll be multiple somethings. I convinced Emory to let me snap some pictures of her worst bite mark ‘for the police’ to use in an exposee about Logan being an abusive lover if nothing else. This nonsense she’s spouting about werewolves and teeth and claws is absurd, but she was afraid enough that I’m willing to investigate if he drugged her, like she was thinking. I think my first stop will be finding out where he lives and doing a little stake out. If I can catch him red-handed buying some kind of hallucinogen, it’ll be the breakthrough of my career. If not, I’ll just sniff out some of the drama around his home. Emory said he has a brother. There has to be some kind of jealousy issue, there. No way the unheard-of brother of a CEO feels anything other than overlooked and unappreciated.

I nod to myself at my plans A, B, and C. I always prefer to have a narrative going in to keep me from getting distracted with unnecessary information. My professors at school always called it bad practice, but those same professors gave me straight A’s so I know they were full of crap. They were just trying to weed out the students too weak to break the rules in order to be successful. They knew I wouldn’t listen. They knew I would do anything to claw my way out of anonymity. I’ve paid my dues, and it’s time to collect. I almost don’t even mind that it sounds like Emory had the sex of a lifetime and I won’t ever get to sample whatever Logan has going on. Sounds like I’d come out damaged, anyway. But never say never, Cora. Who knows what he would do to keep certain details out of the press.

It’s a game I’ve played a couple of times before. Sleep with a man a few times, and he just loses all sense. I’ve mined some of my best stories that way. Even in college, using Emory as bait was one of my favorite strategies. She has this intersection of vulnerable and hot that a certain kind of guy goes absolutely nuts for. She had this whole ugly duckling childhood before all the fat settled into a chunky kind of hourglass figure. She could never pull off the more fashionable clothes that I wear, but tits and ass are in style right now, and she certainly has plenty of those. Now that she’s caught another wild one for me, I might have to start taking her out to eat more with my ‘fame money’ once I get into the New York Times. She could stand to gain another twenty or so pounds before having had the attention of a guy who looks like Logan goes to her head.

Once I get back to my apartment, I get down to serious work on my research. I’ve found a way to look up Logan’s different properties through the land records. It’s tricky, because he inherited his land from what looks to be his father. Once I get that figured out, I realize they’re not in the suburbs, but they still somehow have land. There’s actually plenty of land surrounding that one house. Logan’s father must have inherited it as well. I make a note to add an old money spin on the story. People love reading about the end of a dynasty. By the time I finish my to-do list for the next day, the early hours of the morning have crept up on me and I’ve been awake for 19 hours straight. First thing tomorrow, I’ll do a drive-by of the property and see if I can find an in. Then it’ll be time to see what I can find out about his other CEO friends. That could lead to an insider trading rumor, easily enough. Then I’ll return to the property after dark to do some more in-depth snooping.

With a full day ahead, I make sure to condition and braid my hair for the night before wrapping it in silk to protect it, then do an eight step skincare routine to protect from wrinkles and blemishes, and get ready for bed. Fully aware that my beauty is a tool as much as my brain, I make sure to drink a full eight ounces of water and set an alarm for eight hours from now. I know from experience that I’ll wake in the morning with shining, golden hair, radiant skin, and an aura of perfect health. How could any man resist?